Exterminação 2000

In 1976, "The Omen" was a very popular movie and it spawned sequels as well as a recent remake. So, it's not surprising that someone decided to make a similar film just year later. "The Chosen" (also known as "Holocaust 2000") is a film about the pending end of the world, but instead of a little boy being the spawn of Satan, here he is all grown up and ready for Armageddon.

Robert Craine (Kirk Douglas) is a rich man who runs a company that builds nuclear powerplants. He is hoping to build one in the Middle East though somehow you know that the project is evil and will lead to the end of the world. And, the guy driving this ending is Craine's own son (Simon Ward)...or perhaps his unborn child. Through the course of the film, Robert slowly starts to realize this...and it's up to him to save humanity...or not.

One of the big differences between this one and "The Omen" is the quality of the production. "The Omen" was made by Twentieth Century-Fox and "The Chosen" was made by a smaller company and released by American International Pictures...a company well known for low budget and cheesy films. Oddly, however, "The Omen" is much more over the top and silly...one of the reasons it is actually more enjoyable than "The Chosen". However, despite this, Douglas' performance is really over the top later in the movie...much more than Gregory Peck's in "The Omen".

One of the worst parts of the story is that Craine supposedly meets some priest and the old man tells Craine all about the apocalypse. But EVERYTHING he tells Craine is pure crap...and has nothing to do with the book of Revelation. It's just made up and is laughably so. They didn't even try to make it seem possible.

So it is worth seeing? Well, it depends on whether you like this sort of thing AND if you mind the silliness which occasionally occurs in the movie...and it is pretty silly.

By the way, according to IMDB, there is an American version and an international version...both with different endings. I saw the American one, though the ending was still pretty open-ended.

An industrialist , Kirk Douglas , in charge of a Middle East nuclear plant figures out that his son , Simon Ward, is a Devil with dark purports and sets out in stop him . Along the way he falls in love for a young reporter, Agostina Belli, and she then is pregnant . He will destroy the World. No man can stop him. No man will even try. He is the Chosen . The nightmare will be real. He is coming as Lucifer's Currse . And we will all be damned .The World will be destroyed in a rain of fire. It is written.

A thrilling and bizarre film with a fantastic and disconcerting premise . The film benefits itself of an interesting issue , and , nowadays very usual : the Biblical theme about the Commentary of Apocalypse by St. John . Stars an aging Kirk Douglas who gives a nice acting as the powerful executive who discovers his son results to be the Anti-Christ , while Agostina Belli is fine as the beautiful journalist who falls in love with him . Acceptable Simon Ward who plays the nasty son with sinister purports to wipe out the mankind. Being an Italian/British coproduction bears most of the worst traces of international financing , lines of dialogue that sound as copies from other flicks or like subtitles and poor dubbing . However , appearing notorious secondaries as Brits : Virginia McKenna , Alexander Knox , Geoffrey Keen , Anthony Quayle , Dennis Lawson, Petr Cellier as Italians as Ivo Garrani, Massimo Foschi, Romolo Valli, Adolfo Celli , among others.

Here stands out the suspenseful and intriguing musical score by the great Ennio Morricone , composed in his usual style .The motion picture was professionally directed by Alberto De Martino, though with a sense of disunity between cast and filmmaking , having some flaws and gaps . This Italian filmmaker was a good artisan who wrote and directed a lot of films of all kinds of genres and exploitation movies , as well as various straight Rip-offs with less attention to plot detail . He usually shot films to cash in on other hugely boxoffice successes as The "Exorcist" Martino made "Anti Christ" and " The Omen" he filmed this " Holocaust 2000" . As Alberto De Martino shot Peplum or Sword and Sandals genre : Spartan Gladiators , Invincible Gladiator , Seven Spartans, Valley of Stone Men, Secret Seven . Spaghetti Western sub-genre : Django shoots first, Providence , Charge of Seven Cavalry . Europe Spy subgenre : OK Connery , Operation Lady Chaplin and Terror : The AntiChrist, Miami Golem, Horror , Holocaust 2000 and several others .

From the director of "Pumaman" and "Dirty Heroes" comes another ripoff film, this time a knockoff of "The Omen," complete with Hollywood golden age star Kirk Douglas having to face down the anti-Christ. Douglas plays an energy executive about to build a nuclear power plant in the middle east when he begins to suspect his son is actually the son of Satan and might use the nuke plants to wipe out humankind. Douglas brings sincerity to a ridiculous film and a fine score by Ennio Morricone make this dull and derivative horror film watchable, but certainly don't go out of your way to watch this one.

Holocaust 2000 is directed by Alberto De Martino and co-written by Martino and Sergio Donati. It stars Kirk Douglas, Simon Ward, Agostina Belli, Anthony Quayle and Virginia McKenna. Music is by Ennio Morricone and cinematography by Erico Menczer.

Nuclear industrialist Robert Caine (Douglas) refuses to heed warnings that the Antichrist is closer to home than he ever could have imagined...

Caine and Angel

Casting aside the fact that it is a cash in on the success of the far superior The Omen, it simply isn't smart or good enough to make its own mark. Knowing what is going on in the first instance is not a great thing for the audience, it would be were the narrative strong enough to keep us on our toes, but it never is. The plot speeds along merrily following the same trajectory as expected; mysterious deaths, pregnancy, loads of ominous warnings, repeat sequence of doom and on to the unsubtle reveal in preparation for a less than satisfying ending.

The makers do try to add some salt to the satanic broth, such as having Douglas roam around naked in a feverish nightmare, and some moments are kinda fun in that tacky Italian/England production way, but the zip, the originality, is sorely lacking. Cast seem to be working off of a different screenplay to each other, though Douglas is at least working hard to make the duff regurgitation come alive. It looks nice on occasions, and it's fun for the wrong reasons, but its low standing reputation is fully justified and therefore near impossible to recommend to anyone but Kirk Douglas completists. 5/10

Having already ripped off The Exorcist with his pretty dreadful 1974 movie The Antichrist, director Alberto De Martino has a bash at copying one of the other major horror successes of the '70s, The Omen—and he does a slightly better job this time around.

The decent cast certainly helps: Kirk Douglas stars as industrialist Robert Caine, who slowly comes to realise that his plans for a nuclear power plant in the third world might lead to the Apocalypse, as prophecised in the Bible; Simon Ward is his son Angel, who is determined to see the project to completion at whatever the cost; the lovely Agostina Belli plays Sara Golan, Robert's love interest, whose unborn child may or may not be The Antichrist; and Anthony Quayle appears as scientist Dr. Griffith, who unravels the truth but pays for his discovery with his life.

With such solid performers at his disposal, De Martino is able to deliver an entertaining slice of horror hokum despite the script's somewhat talky nature, its preachy anti-nuclear message and more than a few implausible plot turns, with the film's highlights being the juicy decapitation of a political leader by helicopter blade, beautiful Belli getting nekkid for a raunchy romp with ageing Kirk (such a coupling might sound unlikely, but if Michael can get it on with Zeta Jones in real life, then why not?), Caine's trippy dream sequence (which delivers the truly horrific sight of a naked Kirk Douglas), and a chilling scene where a room full of newborn babies are accidentally poisoned by a negligent nurse.

6.5 rounded up to 7 for IMDb.